1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the fields of data communication and storage and relates more particularly to the use of automated methodologies to create digital images of transform paper-based documents.
2. Background Art
In today's fast-paced business environment, a major portion of many workers' responsibilities include the receipt and processing of information. Data, in the form of letters memos, reports, charts, graphs, etc., arrives in many forms in many different locations. Much of this information is presently transmitted, received, stored, and processed using rapidly evolving computer-based technologies. For example, cloud computing, email, instant messaging, digital voice communication, etc. are becoming increasingly popular methods of transmitting and storing information.
While significant quantities of data and information are readily available in a digital format, paper remains a viable method for communicating information in the modern world. Despite the rapid growth of electronic commerce and computerized processing methodologies, paper remains ubiquitous in many areas of business. Now, with the rapid increase in digitized information, the transformation and integration of paper-based documents into the digital world is becoming increasingly more important.
Unfortunately, many business processes remain trapped in the limbo between digital documents and digital records. This dichotomy may impose certain processes and methods that are time-consuming and inefficient for many businesses. For example, even if the processing of product orders has been mostly computerized, it is not uncommon for paper-based documents to be introduced at some point in the cycle. This includes shipping and product return documents, consumer inquiries, etc. Each time a piece of paper is introduced into a computerized process, the process slows down as the human element is introduced into the equation to deal with the paper-based documents. In particular, the paper must generally be categorized by type of document, date received, source of the document, purpose of the document, etc. In addition, the paper-based document must be integrated into the computerized process. This typically involves the quantification and manual entry of “metadata” (e.g., data related to identifying and categorizing a document) into a computerized system. Further, the process may also involve creating a digital image of the paper-based document and then storing the digital image of the paper-based document in an image database. Finally, once all of this has been accomplished, the digital image of the paper-based document and the associated meta-tags must be associated in some meaningful way so that the digital image of the paper-based document can be retrieved as part of the workflow associated with the computerized process. All of these steps are time-consuming, error-prone, and labor intensive, often leading to a drop in productivity and efficiency for many organizations.
As shown by the discussion herein, without additional improvements in the systems and methods utilized in capturing metadata and integrating paper-based documents into computerized processes, the overall efficiency will continue to be sub-optimal.